We Study Billionaires - The Investor’s Podcast Network - TIP712: Advice for My Twenty-Year-Old Self w/ Stig Brodersen

Starting point is 00:00:00 You're listening to TIP. The philosopher, Sean Kigigel, famously said, you must live your life forward, but it can only be understood backward. Turning forwarded last year, I hope I still have more time left in the hourglass that I've spent, but I've increasingly become aware that there's a number to everything in life, a number for how many sunrises you'll see, and number for how many podcast episodes you record, and how many reruns are the TV show Friends you can watch.

Starting point is 00:00:29 and number for everything in between. And it's the scarcity that makes the number precious, and it's the scarcity that makes the alternative so much worse. In this podcast episode, I want to give myself 20 pieces of advice. I wish I knew at age 20. Of course, the very premise of this can and should be challenged. For example, if I spoke with my 20 year itself, I could have talked about marriage, the decision of whether or not to have kids,

Starting point is 00:00:55 and about sacrifice in investing and life. but the conversation would be fruitless. I couldn't put it into context to anything. At last, perhaps it is true. You can only live your way forward and it can only be understood backward. It's for that reason that I call this episode 2020. As in hindsight, it's always 2020. And I like to think I learned a thing or two about life business and investing since I turned 40

Starting point is 00:01:21 that I didn't know whenever I was 20, but there was still so much more that I don't know. So perhaps when I'm 50, I'll record an episode about 40 things I wish I knew when I was only 40. But until then, let's go. Since 2014 and through more than 180 million downloads, we've studied the financial markets and read the books that influence self-made billionaires the most. We keep you informed and prepared for the unexpected. Now for your host, Stitt Broderson. You're listening to The Investors Podcast.

Starting point is 00:02:04 I'm your host, Dick Brotherson, and let's set the scene for the 20 pieces of advice I would give myself whenever I was 20. At the time, I had just gotten home from a five-month backpacking trip to New Zealand and Australian, and I moved to Denmark to start my undergraduate in science of business administration. The first piece of advice I would give myself is the limit of my language are the limits of my world. Now, all countries are obviously different and have their own twist to the education system,

Starting point is 00:02:32 But at age 18, 19-ish, you're typically done with the equivalent of grid 12 with a little extra on top here in Denmark. So it's quite common to take a gap year and see the world and perhaps work for some time to save up before you continue your studies. And I did both. I worked as a temp, work in various odd jobs. And since age 15, I worked on a dairy farm near my home and picked up as many hours as I possibly could.

Starting point is 00:02:58 And I continued with that. And I was also on call for a variety of jobs. jobs in manufacturing. For example, the night shift in a production facilities packed in cookies, just to mention one. So after 14 years of schooling, I was ready to take a little time off. I wanted to see the world, and after working for a few months, a friend and I bought tickets for Auckland, New Zealand. I had clearly no idea what I was doing. We had a 22-hour stop in Singapore, for example. It was partly because it was cheaper that way, but also because we were excited to see the city. And I remember that I went sightseeing in a fur jacket. And partly it's a little weird

Starting point is 00:03:33 because why would I have a fur jacket in the first place? To which I have no rebuttal. But I remember that I was drawing quite some looks from local. So it was like 30 degrees Celsius, 8 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit. So it was not your typical fur jacket weather. Anyways, not knowing what life had in store for us, My friend and I bought tickets for the so-called Kiwi Experience tour buses in New Zealand. And if you don't know what a Kiwi experience is, it's basically an excuse to tell your parents that you're being cultural while you travel. But actually what happens is that you party every night with all the tourists and then you sleep it off the next day while you're being driving around to various sites.

Starting point is 00:04:13 And so I could give you advice from the trip such as make sure you don't Skype dive with so much hair that you can't wear a helmet? And yes, photos of that do exist. And no, you're not going to see them. And probably also, I should say, don't skydive in the first place. Or it could be the evergreen advice of don't stay in a shared dorm room slash kitchen slash toilet with cockroaches. It's just not that sanitary. But I guess we all live and learn. I had a fabulous time around New Zealand and later in Australia, traveling up the East Coast, borrowing Conte's flight to AS Rock, and later off to Perth. Whenever I look back, what really stands out to me

Starting point is 00:04:56 is that the limits of our language are the limits of my world. And please don't get me wrong. Whenever I refer to a language, yes, it could be speaking a foreign language, and you'll see the world opening up as you learn about another culture in that language, but that's not really the point. A language you learn could also be coding and software. Accounting is a language of business, and another language you need to learn how to speak as you enter the world of business and investing.

Starting point is 00:05:21 Just like they have speaks a slightly different language or social like if you like, then they have nuts. And the opposite is true as well. If you read those over this book 1984 about a totalitarian big brother society, you will learn why the authorities wanted the word riot to no longer be a part of the English language. So-called newspeak was used to replace old speak. The idea is that if you don't know the word for riot, how can you rebel against the authorities? Hence, the limit of my language are the limits of my world.

Starting point is 00:05:51 In school, although my native tongue of Danish, I supposedly learned how to speak German, English and Spanish, but I never really felt I mastered any of it. At the time, I thought I would likely continue my undergraduate studies in business in Danish, but after the trip, I realized how the world would open up if you spoke multiple languages. and not only my native language where only 5 million people spoke, whereas I never managed to get rid of my crissworthy Danish accent in English, as you can probably tell. I came home making sure I needed to study a business degree in English, just like others have found that Chinese, Arab, Spanish, or another word language opens their world, so I found

Starting point is 00:06:28 it with English. If you want to make something in this world, you get a lot of tailwind from speaking a world language. And that takes me to the second piece of advice I will give me to myself at age 20. Get outside of your comfort zone. Most people are not wired to get aside the comfort zone. I certainly wasn't. Ever since I visited Oxford, England, with my parents, I wanted to study abroad, but it seemed like I never got around to it. I had the chance to go in exchange as an undergraduate, but I made up all kinds of excuses not to go. I see that with myself, but also with several other people in my life. People who talk about wanting to start a company for years, but never pick up

Starting point is 00:07:07 their phone to call a customer and get started. And of course, I'm as guilty as charged. I love my life as a student with friends and family nearby. And taking the leave to go abroad into the unknown just seemed daunting. In 2008, I finally made the lead. In between my first and second years of graduate studies, I had the chance to start emergency acquisitions and business analysis at a university in Boston. not as fancy as it sounded. To this day, I have forgotten what I learned academically. My regret was never really to go outside my comfort zone. But rather, I should have done at least a year abroad and really immersed myself in that experience. I didn't stay on campus with the other students, but I rented out a place in Cambridge with a friend and I hang out with the other

Starting point is 00:07:52 Danish students who'd happen to study there as well. Not only that, but I also make sure that my girlfriend, now my wife, stayed with us for half of the program. What would that happen if I had burned the ships. The phrase burning the ships dates back to 1519 where the Spanish expedition led by Anna and Cortez landed in Mexico. Cortez knew his crew was already exhausted after the long sea journey, but he had to motivate them to succeed in the new land. And even more so, he wanted to mitigate the risk of mutiny, so he ordered his crew to burn the ships. Now, I'll be the first to say that the experience was wonderful and I wouldn't be without it. Some of my friends stayed next to their local football team and they showed us reserved

Starting point is 00:08:33 Danes, the fine out of standing upside down on a cat and other invaluable life lessons. But being a reserved day, with doubt about how he could socially integrate with a brand new world in Massachusetts, I just brought a little piece of Denmark with me as my safety blanket. And we never think back on the experience of walking along the Charles River in scenic Cambridge. I get this warm and fuzzy feeling and it was such a wonderful adventure. But an adventure that never fully blossomed in the shadows of making myself vulnerable

Starting point is 00:09:02 in getting outside of my comfort zone. And that is a third piece of advice I would like to pull the thread on. The idea of making yourself vulnerable. One of the most impactful interviews I've done over the past 11 years was not about stock investing, but an episode with a gentleman named Jesse Itzler. Jesse became successful by co-founder my key jet, which is also to Berksie Halloway's NetJets. In my eyes, I remember going into the episode thinking that Jesse has made it, whereas I certainly felt I haven't made to anything.

Starting point is 00:09:34 But I remember asking him this question. I asked him, so Jesse, which piece of advice would you give yourself at age 20? And I don't remember what I thought he would say. Perhaps it would be starting investing in Amazon whenever it's IPO or read XYC book. But to my surprise, he said, make yourself vulnerable. And at first, it was a puzzling answer. I couldn't think of anything I would rather avoid more than making myself vulnerable. In a cutthroat dog-e-dog world, why would you show any sign of vulnerability?

Starting point is 00:10:08 I was certainly in a state of mind where I thought the vulnerability was the same as weakness, and that both were to have been avoided like the plague. Now, as I've gotten a bit older, I realized what a powerful advice that could be for the right person. And I'm a little hesitant to say this because it cannot be. be taking at face value. I always been, and I'm still at times quite uncomfortable when people walk up to me and share what I would deem to be deep personal information. So it doesn't come easy for me to be vulnerable. But for those of you have followed this show since 2014, you probably

Starting point is 00:10:42 noticed that it's only over the past year or two that I've shared stories from my personal life. And it's really only the tip of the iceberg that I share. So as I got over the script for this podcast episode, I probably have five stories that did want to. tell every time I told one, and it's not because they're secret per se. They're just private. So what has changed? Well, first bullets and then cannonbolts. When I was younger, I used to think in quite binary terms, black and white, good and evil. And as you grow older, you see things more granularly. The idea of starting abroad seemed daunting. Now, not academically. In my youth and perhaps sometimes today. I have a blend of vanity and insecurities that blended together in the most

Starting point is 00:11:27 annoying ways. And the idea of not finishing at top of my class at Howard University never really crossed my mind. But I was terrified of the idea of going there by myself and how it would blend in socially. I often felt misunderstood my teenage years, which could be lonely and disheartening and starting across the pond also seemed impossible if I didn't bring a lifeboat in the form of my Danish friends and girlfriend with me. What I wish I knew back then is that whenever you show vulnerability and you make sure that it can't cripple you if someone wants to hurt you, you're opening yourself up to attracting and compounding wonderful relationships.

Starting point is 00:12:05 Life teaches you that world isn't that binary. If starting a year abroad was terrible, I could just have gone home. And I wish I had thought of my previous life decisions more as a word of a portfolio. you can take a stab at something and get a feedback loop going, but don't bet more than you can afford to lose in life and investing. And oh, before I forget, in that episode I mentioned before with Jesse Itzler, Preston and I, my co-founder, started rapping. And I am not kidding.

Starting point is 00:12:37 The reason is that Jesse had the artist 50 cents as an intern back in the day. I don't know if any of the younger listeners who know who that is, but whenever I was growing up, everyone knew who 50 cents was. And so we wanted to make a tribute to that. So no, I'm not going to link to the rap in the show notes, but it is all in the public record if you really, really want to hear a terrible, terrible rap, but you probably shouldn't. Anyways, let's go to the fourth piece of advice I would like to give myself at 8.20. So the advice is, be obsessed. So I was sitting in the basement of this Swanky Hilton Hotel in Mayfif. of London last summer with a friend. And the choice of drink was new to me. I'm still honestly

Starting point is 00:13:21 trying to figure out if the new drink is to my liking. But being ever the introvert, the selection of hotel was a bit arbitrary. My wife used to live in London and when asked where she suggested I stay in central London, preferably without too many people, she suggested Mayfair. And ignorant as ever, I'd never heard about Mayfair before and the entirety of my research process was to find the tallest hotel in the area, so I couldn't hear noise from the street. But also, ever the value investor, I wanted a hotel that was so tall that I didn't want to pay a premium for any of the fancy suites at the very top, and Hilton Hotel popped up as a result. Well, back to the bar.

Starting point is 00:14:02 The discussion topic is chess, and through twist and turns, we ended up talking about what requires to be among the world's top chess players, and obviously it helps to have a certain talent, but that's only a part of it. really matters with the ability to be obsessed and dedicate your life to mastering the game. And you really need to have both. The talent and the obsession. Just having won is simply not enough if you want to be among the very best in the world at competitive chess.

Starting point is 00:14:30 And I sometimes think back on that conversation. Not because I have any brilliant insights into chess. My openings are mediocre best and from the middle game it's really downhill from there. but I think back at the conversation because I constantly run into listeners of this show with similar questions. They want to build the business, they want to become financial dependent, and all of that is good and well. And when asked for advice, I tell them to focus on one thing and then to be obsessed about it. The good thing, I should say, is that you don't need to have the same obsession and talent to succeed in business as in the chess elite, far from it,

Starting point is 00:15:07 but you really need to work much harder than most people realize. And you need to need to to be obsessed with one thing. And that doesn't come easy to most people. Again, we tend to think about it as a portfolio. And if you have 10 stocks in your portfolio, at least one should be a big winner. And perhaps that is true in venture capital and some pockets in the stock market, but that's not really how it works if you want to be successful with your own business or you want to achieve financial independence. If you professionally do 10 things simultaneously, you won't get 10x the number of potential successes because you will be competing. with people who only do one thing and therefore do that one thing better than you. You have to

Starting point is 00:15:46 find a game you're wired to win and be obsessed about it for as long as it takes for you to win. It's that simple, but it's not easy. And that is also why my fifth piece of advice to myself would be quit. Scottfield's Gerald famously said, the test of first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. I absolutely that quote. And it's so true because everything worth having in life doesn't come easily. But with that said, it's equally important not to be tempted to believe that all you have to do to achieve your goal is to never give up. We've heard many successful people say that and perhaps some are right, but I'm quite sure that you're staring into a survivorship bias. The world is full of unsuccessful

Starting point is 00:16:35 people who spend their best years reaching for goals that never materialized. Now, this is not my way of saying that you shouldn't work hard and believe in yourself. You should get going when times get tough. But it is my way of saying that you have a certain amount of chips in front of you. You can call those chips hours, dollars, whatever you want. Every time you spend called one hour on X, you can't spend it on Y. And you must be obsessed to become one of the most successful in your niche. And if you can't, stop what you're doing and be obsessed with something else until you find the game you can and want to win. As with competitive chess, being obsessed is just not always enough. To fellow loyal followers of Buffett, I can't help but mention this old Buffett quote.

Starting point is 00:17:20 How do you beat the former world chess champion, Bobby Fisher? Do not play him in chess. Scott Fitzgerald was right. You have to be ready, never to give up. But you also have to welcome quitting. Both things can be true at the same time. And that takes me to advice number six. We are a product of our time, and so everyone else.

Starting point is 00:17:41 When I was 20, Josh W. Bush had just been reelected. Mark Zuckerberg had just launched the Facebook, later simply renamed Facebook, and the McRib was still a stable in your local McDonald's. It seemed like a time full of promises. I didn't call my parents on my cell phone when traveling abroad. It was too expensive. I would buy a card from a convenience store and call from a phone booth. Because Skype typically couldn't find a stable enough.

Starting point is 00:18:07 connection. And if you're 20 years old today, you'll likely have no idea what I'm talking about, and perhaps you never even heard about Skype. But perhaps your parents today have a hotmail email address or an American online account. And believe it or not, it was all the rates back then. It was a time full of hope and dynamic changes. The world was moving fast in 2004. Only seven years before, my parents had installed internet in our home. And even though something called a modem said the weirdest noise when you went online. and for whatever reason you couldn't use your phone while you were online, it was still magical. Not because you could find much online.

Starting point is 00:18:45 You really couldn't and you used probably a search engine called Altivista or something like that. But what's amazing was that after 30 seconds that it took to go online, you could access the entire world. When you listened to radio ads at the time, they would tell you to go to website addresses that started with WWW, and it was super confusing, and I would literally type up on a piece of paper to make sure how many Ws I have to include on my Internet Explorer browser. It was the preferred browser in the late 90s, though surely others would dwell by Netscape and Firefox and for some of you listening to this, it might be a trip down memory lane. And then for others, they would have no idea what I'm talking about, but I really wanted

Starting point is 00:19:31 to do this podcast episode and come up with. principles that would transcend culture and time. But the very point is that it's so hard to do because you're all a product of time and circumstances we were born into. I wasn't born into a digital first world like Gen C, which has shaped how I interact or don't interact with media. But on the other hand, contrary to Gen X, I was not aware of the Cold War before us old enough to understand that it was something in the past.

Starting point is 00:20:00 We're all a product of the time, and so was everyone else. And so if you're like me and you sometimes are embarrassed about finding yourself being annoyed with people from different generations and cultures or perhaps both, you find that they would do things that you find disrespectful. And I wish I was better then and now to live by the following principle of seek first to understand and then to be understood. Now, before we end this section in all doom and gloom, I want to end it on a high note, especially on this idea of, you know, what's going on with the new beyond generation.

Starting point is 00:20:37 This is a quote that's attributed to Socrates 500-ish BC. The children now love luxury. They show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are tyrants, not servants of the households. They no longer rise when their elders entered the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross the leg,

Starting point is 00:21:03 and tyrannize all their teachers, end quote. I just love that quote. Partly it's funny, but it also goes to this idea of finding principles that can transcend culture and time. I love this quote because partly

Starting point is 00:21:17 is just a fun observation, but it also speaks to the idea of yes, we're all a product of our own time, but can we still find something that transcends different generations and cultures? Let's take a quick break and hear from today's sponsors. All right, I want you guys to imagine spending three days in Oslo at the height of the summer. You've got long days of daylight, incredible food, floating saunas on the Oslo Fjord,

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Starting point is 00:25:51 want as an adult. I thought we have the perfect job, the perfect family, the perfect everything. And in my early 20s, struggling with life and everything professionally, I thought to myself, well, if I just made this amount of money and got that promotion, my life will be perfect. Of course, as you grow older, you'll learn that the world is not kind. You'll learn that human nature is never to be completely happy. Happiness can be an emotion, but it's always feeling and you want more, whether it's love, money, success, or perhaps you want all of it. The world is a complex place, and just like every cloud has a silver lining, the opposite

Starting point is 00:26:30 is true as well. Let me give you an example. Being a teacher at heart, I'm biased in wanting to help young people break through. And even as I've, which you can probably tell from this episode, gotten a bit more cynical with time, I come from a place where I want to help. And so every day, I have someone who want something from me in my inbox. Perhaps it's 10 people, perhaps it's more. One of the common requests I get is something along the lines up, I love your show, and I have XYC product I want to sell. Can we please do a revenue split? Which seems to be a reasonable business proposition,

Starting point is 00:27:07 if it comes from a true friend of the show. We share the upside together and there is quote-unquote no downside. But let me take one step back. So here in the Investors Podcast Network, we make a few million dollars on advertising, all that is good and well. And the way this system is set up is that advertisers come to us. And if a campaign works, we get paid. And if it doesn't work, we also get paid.

Starting point is 00:27:29 In other words, there's no financial reason to do a revenue split on an unknown product. and obviously even less with a business that's typically in his infancy, that's why they suggest a pure revenue split. But here's one example of how you can have anything but not everything. If I don't respond to the young, ambitious man, I kind of feel bad about it. I mean, I used to be that guy, and it was my route of passage to grind and find a way to succeed in business. So I want to get back to him and decline and explain why.

Starting point is 00:28:03 And of course, order this politely. And if possible, I would like to give advice. And I want him to know that it's not a no to him. But it just doesn't make financial sense to us to do it, no cure, no pay for an unknown product. And I want to waste him luck. I certainly don't want to ignore that email. I've been on the other side of the email and I feel terrible about being ignored.

Starting point is 00:28:26 So you might be listening, thinking, well, that's all good and well. Why don't you just spend five minutes and then you respond to this young. man and then you get on with your life. So this goes to this principle. You can have anything, but not everything. Again, I could choose not to respond to him, but I would feel bad about it. But if I do respond, this young man is thinking, this is great. Stig is actually responding. And a good salesman doesn't take no for an answer. So I will continue to approach stick until he gives him. And all of a sudden, you have the 10 requests, each of them taking five minutes. That's probably okay. You spend 50 minutes of your day. But then the next next.

Starting point is 00:29:03 day you have 10 plus the other 10 that you had from the day before because now you have a conversation and then obviously the third day you would have 30 and so on and so forth. And so of course this is just one example to illustrate my point, but I think we all have a version of that in our lives. Perhaps you're in a situation where you can have your dream job just two hours away from your home or you can take a less good job next door. But your dream job adds four hours to your day and likely a lot of road rage. If you're listening to this podcast, you'll likely quite successful, or at least you want to be successful. And this is not just empty flatter. There's a strong selection bias to those who listen to this podcast who started billionaires and

Starting point is 00:29:44 how they live their lives. And you're likely in a situation where you have the talent to do anything you want. If you truly are obsessed with being successful, nothing is stopping you from achieving that. But what I wish I had known back then and what I would tell my younger self today is you can have anything, but not everything. You can rise to the very time. top of your profession in the corporate world, you can train to run a marathon or you can become a successful business owner. But every time you say yes to something you love, you say no to something else. And so what I've learned and what I wish I knew back then was that the best thing you can hope for in life is to struggle well. And on that note, I want to go to the eighth advice I would

Starting point is 00:30:25 give to my 20 yourself. Become financial independent before 40. And yes, even after knowing that you have anything and not everything, you probably still want everything. Well, welcome to the club. That is why I suggest at age 20, you need to make the decision to become financial independent before age 40. And I was torn about whether or not I should put this down as advice. After all, it would be better to say something inspirational like, follow your passion and don't think about money. Well, I've seen young people follow the money in an occupation that don't like, then they get lifestyle creeps. That means they can't stop doing what they do, and as a result, they become miserable. That's clearly not the advice of give to my 20 year itself. So what do I mean?

Starting point is 00:31:14 Well, when you're 20, you're in a great position because you typically have low spending. Keep it that way. Low spending gives you a lot of freedom, even though at age 20, you might feel like it's the other way around, where high spending gives you a lot of freedom. Well, I already recorded episode 689 where I talk about my journey into financial dependence, I'll make sure to link to that in the show notes and I won't repeat all of it here. But if you allow me to be a bit of a grumpy old man here, I don't think following your passion blindly is the way to go for most 20-year-olds. You can 100% find successful people who did just that and through being a starving artist became rich and famous. But simple base rate math would disagree with that choice. If you can find a

Starting point is 00:31:57 career where you're 8 out of 10 passionate that can lead you to financial dependence before it's 40, it's better than the starving artist route, even if you think that the starving artist route is a 10 out of 10 on passion. And partly, I say that because nothing in this life is really a 10 out of 10. The world just isn't that kind. And if something is 10 out of 10, it's only a question before. It is no longer. Unless you're born into a rich family, which most of us are not, you have to do things in the right order. Accumulate wealth first and then get your freedom. You can do it the other way around, but it's so much harder.

Starting point is 00:32:34 Obviously, you don't want to start in a profession where you're three out of ten passionate. You'll burn out and you'll not reach financial dependence. You have to find the intersection where you're adequate passionate, but you can also make money. And on that note, I sometimes wonder why reaching financial independence was so important to me and whether I should truly give that advice to others who are 20, or if it's specific to me and kindred spirits. Now, I grew up in a beautiful countryside of Denmark, 45 minutes from where I live today, and perhaps the best way to explain what it is just because it's top of mind is Netflix's

Starting point is 00:33:10 show, Virgin River, but I should say without the crime and trauma, and probably also less attractive people. But, well, every morning I walked to school, and it was only a few hundred hundred, meters away. You had your time when you left, though. The road closed in the morning and in the afternoon when the cattle crossed the street. And to me, it was just the most natural thing in the world. My parents always had stable jobs. We never liked anything. The summers were long, sunny, beautiful, and often my dad would take out his guitar and the family would gather around at bonfire, singing songs and making twist bread. And my parents still live in that house,

Starting point is 00:33:46 and it's a place with fond memories. I come from a village where you're ambitious on behalf of your local community, but perhaps less so professionally. You worked for the man, and everyone seemed content with that. You worked until you retired, and while many liked their job and perhaps more important, it didn't dislike it, it was really the social activities outside of work that made the difference for most people there. Because the journey of financial independence was so important to me, it has been natural for me to believe that it's equally important to others to become financial free before 40. Perhaps that is all wrong. I've certainly seen. in my local community, how there are so many wonderful, happy people where I never was

Starting point is 00:34:28 something that they aim for. But it is still nonetheless the advice I've given to myself, age 20. And that takes me to the next advice. Number nine, remember the time passes by anyway, make the most of it. Your life is how you spend your time. It's that simple and it's that hard. That said, at age 20, I wish I knew the time would pass by anyway. Okay, so I'm a lot of I'm a slow learner and what do I mean by that? Well, I absolutely love Jim Collins' book, Good to Great. And the book teaches you how corporations go from good to great and how doing so doesn't take any longer than staying good.

Starting point is 00:35:05 You simply have to make a different choice about becoming great. And once you see it, you can't unsee it. Let's take the world of sports. Arguably, the best two footballers in modern times are Lerlinu Messey and Cristiano Ronaldo. And what fascinates me about them is that they won everything. And still, they're super hungry to continue to be the best even after all their prime. And it's just not how most people are wired and certainly not outside the world of sports. It just frustrates me when great footballers don't want to give it their role.

Starting point is 00:35:36 Thinking about it like this, they're playing an away game and spend a day traveling to that stadium, it's not like they have something better to do for those 90 minutes than to go on the pitch and be the best version of themselves. And why not do the best that you can? And I see this in business all the time. Many have jobs that are not passionate about. I've certainly been there. But if you're tied to your desk for eight hours anyway,

Starting point is 00:35:59 why not do your best in those eight hours while you're there? Not because of the company and certainly not because of your boss. Perhaps you don't like either, but perhaps you want to perform for you, because that's who you are. And I find the idea of time passes by in a way to be a fascinating mental model of the world. and I heavily leaned into it in all walks of life. Like so many other people, money can be burning a hole in my pocket. And when I was 20, reaching my financial goals just seemed daunting.

Starting point is 00:36:29 But time is passing by anyways, and why not leverage the beauty of compounding? I usually hit a wall between 10 or 10.30 p.m. and I don't feel creative or productive anymore. Well, I'm tuned to cost at this time or typically to, I don't know, doans scroll on my phone. This is typically whenever I would double down on a good non-fiction book, and if I want something lighter, I might read it 10K or 10Q, which is typically a bit easier to digest and can be skimmed if need be. And when you make the decision that time passes by anyway, you also know that whenever you're just worn out after a long day, you have lower willpower and you don't make good decisions.

Starting point is 00:37:07 So you have to make decisions about how you want to make decisions. And so what do I mean by that? Well, I have a terrible habit of always having my phone around me. So what I do at that time is that I always carry a book with me in the room that I'm going into to make easy for me to read the book instead of scrolling on my phone. Also, I tend to like junk food at night. So I always make sure to have fruit available. It doesn't always work, but with small things, you can ask yourself to be the best version

Starting point is 00:37:32 of yourself. So remember that time passes by in a way. You don't have to be messy to be the best version of yourself. And that takes me to advise number 10, do what you say and say what you do. The origin of this was something I clone from Monashap Rai, am a friend and co-host William. If it wasn't for them, I didn't think I would have discovered the powerful framework from David Hawkins. In short, people can sense whether you can be trusted or not. They may not be able to tell you why, but your subconscious mind is strong and recognizes certain patterns with people you encounter.

Starting point is 00:38:06 Think of new people you met over the past month. Do you know why you trust the sum and not others? The key to unlocking that trust is to do that by saying what you do and doing what you say. And when you do, you radiate authenticity and people would start trusting you. But you have to act accordingly. You can't be trustworthy on command. Either you do it or you don't, and other people can sense that. It's a survival mechanism that is hardwired in us.

Starting point is 00:38:32 Now, doing what you say and saying what you do is a hard way to live. Let me give you an example of how this mindset to commits to such that life can be exhausting and make you say stupid things. So last weekend, I was out with a friend and his girlfriend. And his girlfriend asked me if there was something I wanted to become better at. And I not so elegantly said, I wish I was better at lying. Now, that is not a nice quote, is it? Well, my friend's wife, understandably got quite confused by this seemingly odd statement.

Starting point is 00:39:04 I mean, who would want to become better at lying? I don't know, calling men perhaps. But we live in a society where to function socially, you're advocated to tell white lies. You tell your boss that the cover activity has been fun. And when someone calls you and you don't want to talk to them, you say, I was just about to call you. Even if that's the last thing you want to do, I know I've done both. A few years ago, I made a commitment to myself to say what I do and do what I say. And it is a hard way to live your life.

Starting point is 00:39:33 But as I found out, if you're hot on yourself, life will be easy on you, and if you're easy on yourself, life will be hard. And it comes in all shapes and sizes. For example, you can be hot on yourself and underspend your income. You can be hot on yourself and not eat junk food. And if you do, life will be easy on you. Not today or tomorrow, but in the long term. If you want to lose weight, you might have a rule about not eating dessert.

Starting point is 00:39:58 But you can make exceptions if that dessert is really delicious and it's seemingly a good rule, but it's also a painful rule because you have to spend mental energy on whether or not you can make exceptions for yourself or not. And this is typically at a times where you know that you don't make a good decision. It's not easier to make a decision, I eat dessert or I don't eat desserts, than to make a decision every single time. Let me give you an example. During the Berkshire weekend in Omaha two years ago, I flew in a little early to get used to the time difference. So I sent a message out into a mastermind community and I wanted to know if anyone was up for a walk and talk. And luckily for me, a young man named James said that he would

Starting point is 00:40:37 set aside a bit of time to walk around the city and talk about stock investing and whatnot. Now, as I went to the lobby of Motel, I happened to run into Guy Spears' wonderful chief of staff, Shantelle Hackett. And Chantel was very kind, and she invited me to the Berkshire Value X event that had just started. And the tickets are notoriously difficult to come by, and I've never participated before but really wanted to. And I was obviously tempted to take Chantel up on her invitation and then give James a bad excuse for why I could meet him. But the decision was very easy. You do what you say and you say what you do, and I had promised James to go for a walk with him. Now, if I'd been the kind of person who had ditched James to go to a cool event, you probably

Starting point is 00:41:18 wouldn't be listening to this podcast. You all met that person who promised you whatever it is, but if something is more exciting than you, they are the first to cancel on you. I've certainly have that happened to me many times before, and I just don't want to be that guy. So I do what I say and say what I do for selfish reasons. In this case, James, who I've never met and, by the way, did get to meet his super, super nice guy. But it was because I made a contract with myself. Perhaps it seems like a very tough way to live your life, and sometimes it is.

Starting point is 00:41:48 Hence my terrible response to my friend's girlfriend about being better at lying. But at the same time, the commitment to make your word, your bond is also very liberating. You don't have to think and evaluate if you want to keep your word. You just do it. And the way you do the small things also the way you do the big things in life. Life has taught me that it's hard always to keep your word, and it's hard to live a life where you constantly break your word. Choose your heart.

Starting point is 00:42:13 All right. Shifting gears here, going to point number 11. Let people do CrossFit. Okay. So what do I mean by that? A few years ago, it seemed like everyone and their mother were doing CrossFit. And it was quite easy to tell if someone did just say. that. Not because they were ripped, even though they probably were, but because they always

Starting point is 00:42:35 found a way to tell you within 10 minutes without any good primer. You could talk about the weather, and they would suddenly tell you there was perfect weather to do CrossFit. Or if you were having lunch, they would tell you that it's great having coughs because they were just about to do CrossFit, had just been doing CrossFit or something, something CrossFit. And I think we all have our own CrossFit. Something we're really excited and proud about, but that the rest of the world doesn't care about. And one thing I wish I knew whenever I was 20 and one thing I still struggle with today is not imposing my own values and opinions on other people. In today's polarized world, it's very easy to make assumptions about why others have different opinions than you. Typically,

Starting point is 00:43:18 we tell ourselves that it's because the other side, perhaps politically, is just uninformed, they would lie to, or perhaps they're simply not as smart as you. You will save yourself a lot of headache if you choose your battles. The person you speak to is likely as little interested in being told that they're wrong as you are. So let the other person talk about how proud they are about doing CrossFit, and you can obviously make it as metaphorically as you want to. It makes them go strong to talk about it, and perhaps you can even ask into it and learn a thing or two. And then move on to other topics that makes both of you go strong.

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Starting point is 00:47:09 prospectus at fundrise.com slash income. This is a paid advertisement. All right, back to the show. Advice number 12, deserve good things in life. At age 20, I wanted to find excuses for redefining success in whatever way that could make me look good and others look bad. For example, if someone had financial success, which few had on their own age 20, I was the first to point out that it was likely due to someone having a rich father. And why there might be true something, Sometimes, it's an incredible negative approach to life that would not do you any good. When you do this to make yourself look good, we runily make ourselves look very bad. And it likely doesn't surprise listeners of our show, but Warren Buffett has a profound impact

Starting point is 00:47:53 on my life. And we could probably do an entire show with Buffett quotes. Now, one thing that always stuck with me was this idea of deserving your successes. It's not only the case for financial success, but it's also similar whenever you want to attract the right spouse or a good friend. You start by being a good spouse and a good friend, and it doesn't really work the other way around. At times when you feel a little lost, a feeling that would likely never disappear for good, it has served me well to stop with the end in mind, ask how you can deserve success in whatever way you define it. And this is not the same as saying

Starting point is 00:48:27 that the world will be fair, far from it. But a good starting point is to deserve what you want in life, even though it doesn't always work in your favor. It's the right way to approach life. Number 13. Learn from other people's mistakes. When you're 20, the world is very simple and it's very complicated. It's a time of experimentation and you're trying to find your place in the world. It's a time when you make many mistakes and it seems like you're spending too much time getting yourself back on your feet after life has knocked you out. It might also be the most exciting time of your life because you're exploring so many new things. At age 20, I wish I've been reading more books. Of course, as a student, you feel that all you do,

Starting point is 00:49:06 is nothing but read, but starting a textbook that you're supposed to take an assignment is very different than reading books to learn about the world and how to live a good life. Ever the economist, looking back, it seemed to be such an inefficient use of my time to make so many mistakes by myself, rather than reading books by people who live wonderful lives and just learn from their mistakes. I wish to stumble on Warren Buffett and started how he lived his life whenever I was 20. At the same time, I don't think it would have made any difference at all. Yes, learning from other people's mistakes is cheaper and faster than making your own.

Starting point is 00:49:42 And just like you can read about how it is to fall in love and perhaps out of love again, you must feel it on your own body before you really understand it. You can read about how it is to have a family that depends on you as the breadwinner. But at age 20, you hopefully don't have any experience with that. Later, you learn how empowering it can make you feel. And then other times, how crushing the irresponsibility it can be. In preparing for this episode, I asked my friend David from a mastermind community, which advice he would give himself at age 20, and he said,

Starting point is 00:50:12 lose money. I absolutely love that advice. If you're young and listening to this episode, I hope you will lose money too. Not a lot of money, but enough money to make you humble at a time when losing 50% of your net worth might feel like a lot, but where it really isn't. Since your investable assets are only peanuts compared to your lifetime earnings. Jin C's and millennials grew up in a time with a strong bull market and easy credit. They might have seen the COVID crash and believe that a bare market is short-lived and

Starting point is 00:50:40 the market is only up and to the right. And like falling in love, you can read about how it is to lose money. But you had to experience it and suspect that much of the crazy gambling and speculation we see younger people do today has to do with the time they brought up in. And perhaps it will catch up with them when it's too late. At age 20, I wish I didn't see failure as something negative. which I most certainly did, I wish I've seen failure as life giving me a gem. A gem that was disguised as a seemingly bad experience that I had to unwrap and teach me something

Starting point is 00:51:13 valuable in the process. And that is also why my advice number 14 is get your education in the real world. Few 8.20 are aware that what you give is what you get. I certainly wasn't aware. Growing up, I was quite sure I didn't appreciate the privilege of having solid role models in my parents. And looking back, I feel a bit embarrassed about how much I took for granted. As a kid, I remember asking my parents if I could be paid to do chores around the house. And my father looked at me and said, how about three meals a day and a roof over your heads on? We didn't talk much about money growing up. We never needed anything, but there was certainly no trust fund for me whenever I turned 21 either. I remember how much I wanted a computer.

Starting point is 00:51:56 Well, quickly I learned how many hours I needed to do hard physical labor at the local dairy farm to afford that. After years as a paper boy, I finally got my first real job. I was 16 and I got a job working for $7.60 an hour. It felt like a fortune at the time. I bought a PC. Not a laptop which almost no one had at the time, but one of those big computers you see in old movies.

Starting point is 00:52:21 It was really high tech. It ran Windows XP and it constantly crashed. Sometimes you would see the so-called bruise green of death, and if you had a computer in that age, you know exactly what I'm talking about. My wife and I sometimes discuss how much we should spoil the next generation. I have two nieces who are brought up similar to me, in a household where you learn the value of honest and hard work. And on one hand, I want to give them all the luxury in life.

Starting point is 00:52:46 You know, all those luxury, I would have loved to gotten at their age. For whatever reason, the newest tech and branded clothes seems to determine your social standing at a certain age, and it seemed to be so important in those formative years, and of course also such a nothing burger in hindsight. On the other hand, how can you teach a young person the importance of hard work and saving before consuming if you haven't felt it on your own body? 8.8.20 I was doing the night shift, and at 2 p.m. I would be at temp worker handling dangerous chemicals at local factory. You learn a lot from honest work, and also you learn a lot from being the lowest on the totem pole. One of the things is that you learn that you better study hard,

Starting point is 00:53:25 so you don't have to continue doing so. And I see how young people today have been told by the parents how special they are. I even have a parent of one of them applying for a position with us here at the Amassas Podcast Network on his son's behalf. And yes, I'm not kidding. What I would say to myself at age 20 and everyone else at that age is that you're special. But don't expect special treatment when you meet the real world. Yes, you may one day follow your passion. And yes, you might one day find a lot of purpose in changing the world. And you may, or you may not be destined for greatness. But at age 20, it doesn't really matter. Be humble and don't think that honest work is beneath you. Keep your head down and work hard with integrity. And that is also why my advice number

Starting point is 00:54:13 15 is, enjoy the face of your life you're in. When I asked my godmother, which face of her life were best? She said it wasn't the right question to ask. She said that all faces of her life were wonderful in their own way. And I've been pondering that for quite some time. I've certainly had faces of my life that was just very, very painful. And I don't subscribe to the idea that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. In many cases, I found that some faces in my life was just terrible, full stop. That being said, my godmother's right that you should lead into what is wonderful in that face of your life.

Starting point is 00:54:49 I certainly do not miss being 20 with all of the insecurities that came with that age. But I miss certain things from that time. The feeling of time being infinite is one. And on that note, this feeling of being immortal and that serious illness was something that only happened to others and certainly not something that could happen to my family or to me. At the same time, I don't believe in the whole. whole idea that the truth of how to live a good life will be revealed whenever you're on your deathbed. You optimize for different things in your different life faces, and that is okay too.

Starting point is 00:55:21 When I was 10 years old, Disney made The Lion King, and I absolutely loved that movie. And if you were lucky enough that your parents would buy a BHS tape, yes, that is what it was called. Well, then whenever you finish the movie, you would rewind the tape and start watching the Lion King from the beginning. And I don't think you would find many people saying that re-watching Lion King repeatedly is a good use of life. At the same time, I had absolutely no regrets doing that. You optimize for different things and different stages of your life. And you'll later find that if you can't waste hours, you would waste years. Just before I turned 23, I attended summer school, taking a course in international trade and investment.

Starting point is 00:56:01 Fool with myself, I thought I'd be getting an A. Well, I got to see. It certainly wasn't the grade I was hoping for, but I found myself quite preoccupied with this young woman in the class and didn't spend much time reading. Of course, that young woman ended up with the top grade in our class, and I partly attributed that to her just being much smarter than me, and as I remember it, she wasn't as preoccupied with me as I was with her. Well, all is well, it ends well, and here, 17 years later, we're coming up on a 15-year-s

Starting point is 00:56:31 anniversary. After meeting my wife, I didn't do a good job spending time with my parents. They only live 45 minutes away, so don't really have a good excuse. And I've since spoken with my father about it. And I told him that I didn't feel too good about my neglect. And he looked at me and said what hopefully other fathers would tell his son, that a young man, his early 20s finding his new girlfriend and parting with his friends more interesting than spending time with his old folks were probably a healthy and

Starting point is 00:56:58 completely a natural thing to do. Again, you have different ages and different things you optimize for. And fast forward, I often hear from people near the end of their lives that they regret working too much and not spending enough time with their friends. And I think it's a completely understandable regret, but it also depends on how the tips is falling for you. I think if you put a camera on my shoulder, it looks like I'm working on TAP 16 hours a day.

Starting point is 00:57:21 And it's the first thing I do whenever I wake up and it's the last thing I think about whenever I go to bed. But I don't see it as work and it only has a positive connotation. I see it as a beautiful journey with friends where we help me. each other out. And I can't see how I can spend 16 waking hours better than that. So I don't divide my time between friends slash family and work, but I want to take my friends and family into the wonderful world of TIP that doesn't feel like work but purpose. We can't all be that lucky, but it certainly wouldn't happen if we didn't ask for it in life. And it doesn't apply

Starting point is 00:57:56 that I don't have any regrets. I've made so many mistakes I would rather be without, but your regrets should be seen in the faces of life you're in. Regrets also builds character, and it's an education on the wonderful journey into adulthood. After all, reflection plus pain equals progress. Number 16, have fun. And I'm a little torn about including the next piece of advice about having fun. Much misery in this world has come from being unable to delay gratification. And I hope this point doesn't come across as countering that.

Starting point is 00:58:29 Certainly many 20-year-olds are too busy enjoying life and do not prioritize education or setting money aside for investments and let the magic compounding do its thing. However, I also think that there is a diverse selection of many who listen to her show. At its 20, just starting my undergraduate studies, I attended conferences, spoke potential employers about the prospect of grad school, and looked at various salary tables. Today, I would tell the young man to kick back and enjoy life more. Those things will come and do time. Remember to have fun and enjoy the good things about being 20.

Starting point is 00:59:02 In my first job after college, I did three rounds of interviews, only to realize the extra work I had done to get the highest grade made zero difference. The trading company had heard a rumor that I have a reputation for being a half-decent holding player, and there was really the skill set they were interested in. After my first job, my second employer couldn't care less about my grades or extracurricular activities. And I hope this doesn't come across as you're not working hot in school. You certainly should.

Starting point is 00:59:27 but many who listen to this show are already in the top 10, and for it was really hard on being top one or perhaps even point one, in whatever field they're in. And I completely understand that mindset. I had it myself for many years, and honestly, I still have that today. I have a really, really hard time letting that go. At times, it seems like being number two is just the winner and being the first loser. But today, I try to look at it a little bit differently, though my competitive side sometimes get the better of me.

Starting point is 00:59:55 You don't know how much time you have in your hourglass. Remember to have fun. Being the top one or top 10% of students likely doesn't make much of a difference when you're 40 and look back at your life. But don't miss out on the fun things. All of those fun things you can do whenever you're 20, they just won't come back. And similarly, whenever you are 20, you think that whenever you're 40, you will no longer have the problems you're currently facing. And therefore, your life will be so much better. And by and lots, indeed, you don't have the same problem.

Starting point is 01:00:25 But here's the kicker. You will just have exchanged one set of problems with another, and it never stops. The best thing you can hope for in life is to struggle well. Advice 17. Be intentional about your relationships, but not too much. Aside from family and a close-knit group, I don't have many close relationships today that are forced before the age of 28. And sometimes it makes me sad, but it's also a very conscious decision.

Starting point is 01:00:52 Before age 28, I didn't have much of a strategy for the people I surround myself with. And please don't get me wrong. There were not bad people. It was just people who happened to grow up near me. And later, it was friends who happened to study the same thing as I did or worked the same place that I worked. And I had a blast with those people. At the same time, I felt that something was missing.

Starting point is 01:01:13 I believe in making your own luck. And the friendships in my life were often made so because they were coincidentally happened to be geographically adjacent. When I was 20, the world was very much where you were based. Sure, everyone had internet access, but you didn't seek out online communities like you do today with very like-minded people. When you wanted to find people with similar interests, you looked around your city to see if you can find kindred spirits.

Starting point is 01:01:38 When I turned 21, my wife was doing a part of her PhD in Sweden, and I had a year's garden leave from my training job, and it was the perfect time to explore new relationships. I found an online community called Buffett's Books, and this is where I met my future co-founder of the Investors Podcast Network, Preston Pesh. And looking back, what was so amazing was that I didn't need to meet that person, in this case, Preston, in real life to build a relationship. The new world allowed you to make friends all over the world. In that sense, our mastermind community has been a blessing, and I hear the same story

Starting point is 01:02:12 for all our members, because it's my own story. If we meet up online and share our thoughts on stocks, portfolio, meant intergenerational wealth and whatnot, and we do it because we like each other. But the reason why we joined and found new friends in the first place is because we couldn't find any of our assistant friends to go on that journey with us. Back in 2004, when I was 20, I wish I'd been more intentional about my relationships and found friends with similar niche interests worldwide instead of only looking locally. Now, ironically, I'm also grateful that I didn't.

Starting point is 01:02:44 When you're 20 years old, you don't know who you are. I surely didn't, and you meet many different people from all walks of life, and then you can make certain divity take over. As you grow older and you get more vacations, you really want to make your time matter, and you typically only have so much time you can dedicate to your friends, and you want to maximize that time. It's completely natural, and we all do it. We know that one hour of one friend could be spent on one hour in your job or with your family,

Starting point is 01:03:10 and it's great being intentional with your time, but it's also incredible limiting and can sometimes make you cynical. Having relationships with people over Zoom is wonderful because you can't with intention connect with their most like-minded friends globally at any time. But it's also terrible because it limits you from having experiences together and you feel there is a counter on your call and a mental agenda that has to be prepared. If I could give myself advice at age 20, I would be more intentional with relationships in my life, but again, not too intentional. Set a direction for your life and then perhaps sometimes count yourself lucky than what has to be more intentional. happens is not what you had planned. Advice number 18, start compounding. Now, you probably think

Starting point is 01:03:52 that this is the section where I would say that you should start compound capital at age 20. And as such, it could be. We all know that compound interest is very powerful in that a dollar compounding can turn into an incredible amount of money giving enough time. It is, however, less so the intention, as valid as it might be. At age 20, I wish I knew that, like I said here, quite a few times, If you're hot on yourself, life will be easy on you. And if you're easy on yourself, life will be hot on you. And it's a piece of advice that is valid in many walks of life. One is health.

Starting point is 01:04:25 It was very easy on myself at age 20. And it meant that so many things in life became hard. I mainly lived off bacon and frozen pizza at the time. And of course, whenever you're 20, your body can tolerate more than whenever you get older. And like so many young men, after the excitement of moving away from home and not having your mother tell you to eat healthy food anymore, you perhaps realize that she was probably right all along. Diet is nonetheless something that can be hard to change if they become a habit. Now, lucky for me, I met my wife at age 22, and it didn't take long before she turned me

Starting point is 01:04:58 away from takeaway into home-cooked meals, but I wonder sometimes what happened if she didn't. I likely shouldn't wonder. I see it among my peers where the change of food habits are too light to be felt until they're too heavy to be broken. And it reminds me of this wonderful piece of advice I got years ago. The advice was simple and yet profound. It was to read everything you can until you turn 30 and then spend your time rereading the best books. Now, I don't think you should take it too literally, but it is how I think about many things in life. I tend to be curious about everything in life. But I'm also aware that one hour doing X is another hour you can't doing Y. When you're 20, that is not how you should look at the world. You should both do X and Y.

Starting point is 01:05:39 Try everything. This is not an age where you know what you like and dislike, and if you're lucky, this should be the time for a bit of an adventure. When you grow older, you feel like time is going faster and faster. And the reason is that you have progressively fewer new experiences as you get older. Who might be stuck in the rat race and do the same thing every day. And even if we escape the rat race, we might have figured out which routines we like and we therefore get fewer new experiences.

Starting point is 01:06:06 Our perception of the world just becomes more automatic. But regardless of the reason, our perception of time changes. For better or for worse, you don't know how you are the best version of yourself and how you should spend your time to achieve that. And perhaps as you grow older, you're too sure of that. And even worse, you might be mistaken in that. When you're 20, you can make the best of both worlds and explore yourself and the world without the scars and the following precautions.

Starting point is 01:06:33 Advice number 19. Loneliness is an unwelcome guest, but be hopeful. When I was 20, I felt lonely. In a way, it's odd to say so. I just moved to a new city and I loved hanging out with new people. I met and I enjoyed exploring the city. It felt like every day was a new adventure. At the same time, ironically, I felt quite lonely

Starting point is 01:06:56 and I felt most lonely whenever I was around other people. Being an undergrad was a time for me and for many others where they explore who they are. They experience with different things they never tried before. and it's also a time where you, to a last extent, don't decide who you hang out with and what to do throughout the day. You follow a program determined by the university and you happen to hang out with the people who happen to attend the same program. You find that most of a relationship you forge are there for a reason, a season, and less so

Starting point is 01:07:26 for a lifetime. It was not before I found the value investing community close to the age of 30 that I truly found kindred spirits in the world of investing, business, and life that all interact wonderfully together in the value investing community. Now, whenever I intended a conference last year, my father asked me whether I was going as stick or at stake from TIP, and I wasn't sure how to respond to that question. And it made me surprisingly sad. The value investing community has allowed me to connect and be friends with high quality people

Starting point is 01:07:56 and never would have chance to meet. It also boxes me into a role of being less stick, the random dude, and more stick from TAP, which is sometimes wonderful and other times feels incredibly. incredibly lonely whenever I interact with others in the community. And if I could go back to myself, age 20, I would tell him that with age, you get more opportunities to be around kindred spirit. But I would also tell him that loneliness is an unwelcome guest that seems to drop by at the most inconvenient times. I would also tell the young man that being alone and lonely are two very different things, which is something I didn't do a good job of understanding

Starting point is 01:08:33 at the time. And then the final advice. Number 20, don't carry the world upon your shoulder. Now, admittedly, I 50% chose this as the final advice because it's part of the lyrics to The Beatles Hey Jude, but 50% is also because it's good advice. So, when I was 20, it seemed like everything was black and white. I had a hard time putting up with how unfair the world was. And here 20 years later, the world is still unfair. So what has changed?

Starting point is 01:09:05 Partly as you grow older, you start to see the nuance of more things in life. You see that some things and some people are not purely bad or purely good. You see how complex the world is and how seemingly contradictory facts can sometimes be. When I was most in emotional turmoil about how terrible the world was, my father would tell me that I couldn't change the world. He said I could change the world for those close to me and in the local community. And being more pragmatic today, I find that to be good advice. The responsibility to make the world a little better than whenever I found it is still ever

Starting point is 01:09:38 present, sometimes more often than others. I met some of the best capital allocators in the world, and I met wonderful people who wants to improve the lives of the least fortunate. There is sometimes an overlap, but most often not. When I'm far from being the best capital allocator, I still have a sense of guilt that I continue to wrestle with. A part of me wants to buy and consume the finer things in life, and a part of me feels a deep social obligation to give back to society as it feels like I've gotten so much more than

Starting point is 01:10:08 what I contributed. And it comes in all shapes and sizes. With my skill set, the best thing for society is probably accumulating capital and then funding a terrible organization. If I work for $1,000 an hour, it's an inefficient allocation of resources for me to pursue in a shelter. And it would be mathematical better if I kept my head down, worked extra hours and donated more money instead of orientating my time. At the same time, as well-meaning as most charities are, most of them optimise her feeling good, and resources are allocated terribly.

Starting point is 01:10:40 As in that case, you can argue that capital allocator, such as you listen to this podcast, should work on the designer charity. As such as you can argue that capital allocators, such as you guys listen to this podcast, should work on the designer charities. This could be a way for you to generate a social high return than $1,000 per hour.

Starting point is 01:10:58 But if all you do is organizational work and you never get to meet the people you want to help, it can be draining and it might prohibit you from helping in any capacity in the first place. Now, I'm engaged in a foundation that's co-founded by team members here at TIP. We want to provide education for kids below the poverty line and, if possible, provide housing for them because many of them come from, let's say, not so stable homes, if not outright abusive homes. However, in this specific country we're working in, it's incredible difficult to build real estate if you do not bring. government officials. I've obviously refused to pay any bribes, even though the sums we would

Starting point is 01:11:36 face in the grand scheme of things are minuscule at best. It would simply not be aligned with my values to even consider that. And as a result, the meaningless amount paid as bribe, which is not even consider as a bribe to locals because it's more similar to a one-time property tax, stops poor children from safe housing. And I sometimes wish that I was 20 and I thought I had all the answers. older I get, the more I'm aware of how little I know for sure. And no, I should say that I am 100% confident that you should never pay bribes to anyone. But that's not the point. The point I want to make is no matter where you are, life will continue to challenge your values and your ability to tell right from wrong. And if I can give my 20 year old self any advice,

Starting point is 01:12:22 I would tell him that if you are directionally correct in how you approach life and business, that's really all you can ask for. Hold yourself to high standards and do not beat yourself up when you fail because you will. You're just human like everyone else. Thank you for listening to TIP. Make sure to follow We Study Billionaires on your favorite podcast app

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We Study Billionaires - The Investor’s Podcast Network - TIP712: Advice for My Twenty-Year-Old Self w/ Stig Brodersen

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